Chapter 10: A Picture's Worth… (Rinoa)
Hear my voice, where you are, take a train, steal a car,
Hop a freight, grab a star, come back to me.
Catch a flame, catch a breeze, on your hand, on your knees,
Swim up high, only please come on back to me.
On a mule, in a jet, with your hair in a net,
In a shower wet, I don't care.
This is where you should be, from the hills to the shore,
By the wind to my door, raise the highway dust,
Break the law if you must, throw the world, only just
Come back to me.
Blast your hide, you recall, must I fight City hall
Here and now, damn it all, come on back to me,
Where on earth must I be, still I yell till I'm blue,
In control then when you come on back to me.
Have you gone to the moon, or the corner saloon
And to crack and to croon, oh my girl, where in hell can you be?
In a crate, in a trunk, on a horse, on a junk,
In a road or a van, wrapped in mink or saran,
Anyway that you can, came back to me,
Come back to me, come back to me, come back,
Come back to me, me!
I can see it in their eyes; they know something that they aren't telling. Having spent so much time in their presence, though, I know that if they have not told us yet, the chances of getting them to spill are pretty slim. If nothing else, Quistis and Seifer are perfectly matched in their stubbornness. But there is no way I am going to let them think I don't know something is wrong, that there is something more than a simple mission here. As I enter the room I see them huddled close in a chair in the corner by the window, speaking in soft tones so nobody will hear them. If it weren't for the crease in Quistis's brow I would think they were simply whispering sweet nothings like lovers do. But that small wrinkle on her forehead gives them away.
Striding over, I notice they go silent as I near and their eyes turn to watch me. Seifer's aquamarine eyes narrow as I stop in front of them, placing my hands on my hips. No way is he going to intimidate me, especially when he has Quistis sitting on his lap, her back to his chest. If I weren't so determined to find out what is really going on, I might have teased them about it. Because, lets be honest, they are just about the cutest couple I've ever seen and they don't often engage in PDA so this is a rare occurrence. But alas, I have a mission to complete, and it does not leave room for distractions. Quistis watches me through her lashes, her blue eyes alert to my body language.
"Listen, I know that this whole thing is a lot more than it seems—"
Quistis interrupts me, "Yes, Rinoa, we all know that."
It is my turn to narrow my eyes. "Yes, we all know that. But the two of you know more than the rest of us. You have a secret about this mission, and all I want to tell you is that the longer you keep it a secret, the more likely it becomes that something bad will happen."
Seifer remains quiet, his eyes moving from me to watch Quistis's profile as she drops her gaze to the floor. Firm in my resolve, I stand in place, awaiting their next move. Quistis is still for a long moment before she closes her eyes and lightly bites her lip. Turning her head toward Seifer she opens here eyes again and murmurs softly, "We promised."
Looking between the two I can see that there is a silent dialogue going on so I stay quiet, waiting to see what the outcome of this inner argument is. Just as I am beginning to get uncomfortable standing here, I am shocked to see Ellone appear at my side. She is out of breath and her face is as white as Shiva's Diamond Dust as she gasps in air, attracting Quistis and Seifer's attention.
"What's the matter, Ellone?" There is an urgency in Seifer's voice that startles me, a tone that I have only heard come from his lips on a handful of occasions. Glancing at the couple in the chair I see that both of their eyes are shining with anxiety.
"She's gone!" Ellone peeks nervously at me before turning her full attention back to Quistis and Seifer.
"What do you mean, she's gone? She was in a coma!" Quistis asks, her hand gripping Seifer's arm that is wrapped around her middle. I get the distinct feeling that this is closely tied to what the rest of us are missing out on.
"Well she was…she woke up yesterday afternoon, shortly after the two of you left and she wanted to go home."
"So maybe she snuck out to get home?" It is obvious even to me, who is in the dark on the great importance of this new development that Quistis is grasping at straws.
Ellone shakes her head as she still struggles to recover from her obvious run, her legs and hands shaking a little, from what I don't know. "The doctor let her go. He discharged her and sent her home with her nurse and a supply of pain killers, which is so unbelievably irresponsible and stupid I can't even begin to phrase my outrage. But Quistis," Ellone leans down and grasps Quistis's upper arms, their eyes level. "She's gone. She's not at home, she's nowhere that we can find her. There's nobody in her house…the bed has been slept in and things moved around, but no people."
"You don't think she would have run away to avoid us, do you?" Quistis gets up from Seifer's lap, and he follows her lead and stands as well, wrapping an arm around her waist in support.
"Honestly, Quisty I have no idea what she would do anymore. I mean, when we were up at the hospital she refused to take Tessa with her. She said she would be better off without her and all sorts of garbage like that…I figured when she was calm and thinking clearly I could convince her that Tessa needs her, but now we can't find her anywhere." Ellone twists her hands as she speaks.
Getting frustrated, I interrupt, "Who are we talking about here? Sarah, the woman for the mission? Since when do you two know her?" Looking suspiciously at Seifer and Quistis I raise an eyebrow as I wait for an answer. They look at each other and Ellone, all looking worried. It is Seifer who finally speaks.
"Come on, how long did you plan to keep this a secret anyway?" He looks down at Quistis for a second before continuing, addressing her. "Quis, you and I both know that the more people that know, the safer she'll be. She's completely defenseless without us." Slowly, Quistis nods her head, looking to Ellone who nods as well.
"Rinoa, meet us in thirty minutes in the conference room. We'll go find President Loire and them and then we'll discuss everything with you." With that said, Quistis takes Seifer's hand and gestures for Ellone to lead the way to Laguna.
Watching them disappear through the door I get a feeling that I may regret knowing what is truly going on. Looking around the now empty room I try to think of something to do to fill the time until I have to be in the conference room. Shrugging, I exit through the door opposite the one Quistis, Seifer, and Ellone went through, going towards the stairs and up to Squall's room.
Knocking lightly I hear a rustle of papers before the door is abruptly pulled open, revealing Squall. I smile at him as I enter the room and sit down on the edge of the bed, reaching out a hand to the papers he had recently abandoned. One is a blueprint of the house where our damsel lived and I pick it up to study it. Squall comes over and sits next to me, also studying the blueprint.
"This case has hit a lull. There have been no clues about who could have done this…" He reaches over and pulls out another stack of papers from under the scattered sheets. These are photographs…photographs I've never seen before. He hands them to me and I gasp, raising a hand to cover my mouth. These are photos of the victim's wounds. I feel sick as I flip through the stack of pictures, full of gore of an unimaginable degree. It is a miracle the woman survived at all when you look at the cuts and stabs and bruises. One picture shows the woman's abdomen without bandages, a jumble of stabs that have been sewn back together with care, but what catches my attention is the scar across her lower abdomen. Looking up into Squall's eyes, I point at it, tracing my finger along the ugly, jagged mark in the photo.
"Squall, she…they…who?" I feel a hand begin to rub my back and another reaches out and takes the photograph away from me. He stares down at it like I had, and I can see the disgust and anger in his eyes. Collecting myself, I ask, "What did doing that accomplish? It looks as though they were trying to cut out her reproductive organs or something." Squall looks thoughtful for a second before he jumps up off the bed and grabs his laptop, bringing it back over and turning it on.
"You sating that reminded me of a case they had up in Trabia quite a few years ago. A woman, unknown, was found with her belly cut open. Whoever had done it had removed something from inside, and after the initial part of the autopsy it was decided that it had been a baby. Full term pregnancy, apparently, but it was the strangest thing. When they found the woman she looked like death…" He pauses as he types on the laptop and then turns it towards me. "She was clinically dead when they found her and began the autopsy, but when they went in to finish it one day, her body was gone. No prints were found at the scene but the doctors and one footprint from the dead woman. Look at the cut, though, Rin." As he has been speaking, that is the only thing I've been able to look at. The same ugly, jagged mark as the woman found in the woods.
"What do you think this means, Squall?" My voice shakes as I look between the two photos.
"I haven't figured that out yet. Either a copycat or the same person targeted both of these women." He gets quiet as I flip on to the next photo…the forest where she was found. These are photos taken by Zell, and I understand now why he has been so quiet recently. In the photo is a picture of a tree branch with ropes hanging down, covered in blood. The ground under the ropes is also covered in the dried liquid, everything a dark rusty red. Discarded off to the side is a shredded piece of fabric, probably what used to be clothing. As I stare at the photo I begin to imagine what it must have been like, that forest at night, being hung by the wrists from a tree, completely helpless. My mind injects the woman into the scene, hanging from the ropes, her body beaten and tortured, head limp and hanging down, her hair shielding her face. The dried blood liquefies and gains back its sickening color, dripping down her flesh, soaking into the ground and coating the grass and everything else. I choke at the image and quickly switch photos.
This one is no better. It shows the same scene as before, only from a different angle. In this picture I can see that blood is also splattered on the surrounding trees. I keep passing through the pictures, trying desperately to rid my head of the images that are now there. I come to a stop when I get back to the woman. Every inch of her body is covered with cuts and scratches. I point to one on a picture of her back and once again look to Squall.
"Is it just me, or do these look like whip marks?"
He leans closer and inspects the marks I am pointing to. "Certainly looks like the damage Quistis inflicts when she uses her whip."
Shuddering, I stare at the photo. "Just…what she must have gone through. Whoever she is, she'll never be the same again. No way you could live through that and not change. They wanted her dead, whoever it was, but they wanted her to die in the most painful way they could think of." Squall wraps an arm around my shoulders and I lean into him, closing my eyes against the pictures of cuts, gashes, slashes…closing my eyes against the horror that is this woman's life. "I don't know why Squall, but I feel like I owe it to this woman to get revenge for the wrongs done to her. I feel it deep in my soul…" After that I am silent, as is Squall. He just holds me as I slowly let the tears stream down my face, confused about why I am crying, but knowing at the same time that this woman's suffering is somehow my own as well.
After fifteen minutes I pull back and look Squall straight in the eyes. He leans in and kisses me before I stand, clutching the photos in my hand.
"I'll take these to show Quistis. She may be able to find something we can't." He nods his head and watches me leave, I can feel his eyes on me. Once out of his room I head to the conference room even though I still have five minutes before we are supposed to meet. When I get to the conference room, I toss the photos onto the long table and take a seat, staring at my hands as I play with the rings on my necklace. When I glance back up I start as I see that when I tossed the photos they spread out a bit, revealing that they all connect. Standing up, I begin to piece the puzzle of the woman's body together. Just as I finish and put Zell's photos of the scene in the woods aside, the door opens and Laguna enters. He stops short when he sees the table, his mouth hanging open, and I remember that he was one of the people who found her in the woods.
Behind him comes Ellone who stares for a second before quickly turning away and burying her head in Laguna's shoulder. Everyone else who is coming soon follows and similar reactions occur. It is Seifer who gets everyone moving again.
"Come on, we all saw her. We knew what it was like."
With that, everyone takes a seat around the table, averting their eyes from the flat woman lying on the table in front of them as much as possible. Clearing my throat and also avoiding looking at the table top, I start the talking.
"So…what exactly is going on here?"
"It's the victim. We knew…we know her. All of us."
"Sarah?" I know several Sarahs, but I'm not really friends with any of them.
"Come one, her name is Sarah Talbucks. Sound familiar?" Seifer looks at me with one eyebrow raised as my eyes go wide and my jaw drops.
"Selphie!" I look down at the photo collage of the tortured and abused body before looking back up, tears making everything blurry. "You mean…she is Selphie?" I gesture to the table top and get affirmative nods from everyone gathered around the table. My mind is suddenly filled with images of Selphie: swinging her nunchaku in battle, a smile on her face, running through the halls of Balamb Garden, her face lighting up at an opportunity to plan a party…Selphie wearing Irvine's cowboy hat at the table in the cafeteria, a huge smile on her face as she devours her coffee and donut. At this image I feel the first tear slide down my cheek, followed by many more. Shaking my head I try to keep my tears in control as the image in the forest comes back into my head, only now instead of hanging forward, limp, the woman's head is up, her green eyes staring straight into mine, staring through me, no tears left in her body. This image pushes me over the edge and loud sobs escape me as I feel arms envelope me in a hug: Quistis wraps me in her embrace, and as I look at her, I see the tears shining in her eyes that she will not allow to fall.
Author's Note: Wow…another chapter! It's amazing what one can accomplish when on a break, it truly is. Anyway, maybe I'll even get another chapter out over break, who knows. All depends on how much I'm home, which as of right now is not looking like it will be a lot. So tell me what you think of this chapter, any suggestions or questions, flames or compliments, whatever, I accept all. Oh, and the song at the beginning of this chapter is Come Back to Me by Frank Sinatra.
-Gilly Bean the editing fiend
Edited 11.28.08